No comments about The Warren Report: The Official Report on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

1 comments about The Assassination: Death of the President (Civil War).

1. This book, a volume in the Time-Life Civil War collection, is a good basic history of Lincoln's Assassination. As with the other volumes in the Time-Life series, this book has wonderful photographs and images from the Civil War period. I would recommend this book to people with little or no previous reading on Lincoln's assassination.

No comments about On Being Mad or Merely Angry: John W. Hinckley, Jr., and Other Dangerous People.

No comments about The Insanity Defense and the Trial of John W. Hinckley, Jr..

3 comments about History's Greatest Conspiracies: One Hundred Plots, Real and Suspected, That have Shocked, Fascinated, and Sometimes Changed the World.

1. Mr. Jeffers has written a fascinating book that captures 100 conspiracies stretching from the beginning of time (Adam & Eve) all the way up to more recent ones (Enron, the snipers in DC, etc.) Each encapsulated vignette is highly readable and gives details of the background of each conspiracy, not too much, but enough to whet your appetite to investigate the story further.
   
   Although Jeffers political viewpoint edges his way into the mix (he's obviously a conservative, given his preclusion to disparage Communists, but to either tone down or even dismiss anything that might reflect badly on conservatives and Repubicans), but this does not generally detract from the overall stories much.
   
   It doesn't cover every thing, of course, or the volume would most likely be unmanageable to even pick up, much less read. The author doesn't spend much time with the more esoteric theories that abound among the counterculture (only one piece deals with aliens ["Aliens Among Us"]). given this, its probably not the ideal book for the conspiracy theorists, but for just general knowledge it is worth the price.



2. Because I have an academic background in history, and because I worked in a library in Dallas during all the years following the Kennedy assassination when authors came to us to research their books about it, I have a longstanding interest in "conspiracy history." I'm not necessarily a "believer" in any sense, but I'm fascinated by the ins and outs of conspiracy theory and people's attitudes toward it. I picked up this survey volume (a hundred conspiracies in 314 pages, beginning with Adam and Eve) out of curiosity, but was considerably disappointed at what the author has done with his material. First, he includes a great many events and incidents which are "conspiracies" only by the narrowest legal definition (and a modern U.S. definition at that). This includes famous murders (Leopold and Loeb, the Manson family, the Menendez brothers) and broad political movements (including, believe it or not, the entire history of communism). Second, though claiming to give equal coverage to all those involved, like the good journalist he purports to be, he makes it clear that, for instance, anyone who has ever spied on the U.S. on behalf of another country (beginning with Major Andre) is evil, while the entire OSS and CIA are heroic. The overthrow and murder by the CIA of Prime Minister Mossadegh of Iran -- which led directly to the Shah's repressive policies and the formation of the Islamic state -- was completely justified. The Watergate conspiracy was overblown. Oliver North was justified in breaking the law and lying to Congress in the Iran-Contra affair because he was anti-communist. Cuba was better off under Bastista. And on and on, including the clear presumption that Christians are superior to adherents of any other religion. The author also indulges in ludicrous statements, such as assuring the reader that Saddam really did have weapons of mass destruction. Finally, he omits a number of real conspiracies that obviously should have been included, such as the great water scam in L.A. during the 1930s, secret U.S. government experimentation on members of the military, Hoover's attempts to smear Martin Luther King, CIA efforts to assassinate Castro (mentioned offhandedly and with approval in a single sentence), and the entire unconstitutional COINTELPRO operation. This book is so slanted, you'll have trouble getting it to stand upright on the shelf.



3. I found out upon receiving this book that it was 100 conspiracies summarized in around 314 pages. How can one explain 100 conspiracies in 314 pages? Poorly.
   
   There are several glaring problems with this book. First, the conspiracies are ranked in order of magnitude and boldness. Jeffers opens the book with the conspiracy to drive man out of the Garden of Eden and the second chapter is the conspiracy to kill Christ. In the second chapter I was uncertain if he was arguing about those who conspired against Christ or the allegations that the crucifixion was staged by somebody claiming to be the Son of God. The rest of the book looked like he just threw a bunch of conspiracies in a jar and picked them at random.
   
   Second, I would hardly classify many of the conspiracies as true conspiracies. It is true that Lenin did not operate alone in making the Bolshevic Revolution happen but I would hardly call that event a conspiracy even if it did do harm to many people. If that was a conspiracy then would not the Nazi rise to power also be a conspiracy? The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was the result of very sound military planning -- not a bunch of Japanese war lords conspiring to attach the US. If that was a conspiracy then would not Allied plans for D-Day have been a conspiracy as well? Or the dropping of the Atomic Bomb?
   
   Third, these short summaries read like short book reports. Looking at the references Jeffers used one source per conspiracy. Somehow I would think there may be many more sources than one to detail these conspiracies.
   
   Finally, as a amateur history buff I know enough about some of these "conspiracies" to know that his info was not only incomplete but also incorrect. For example, the Nazis were guilty of many crimes. However, he treated the burning of the Reichstag in 1933 as a definite Nazi act. To my knowledge, this was never proven and most historians believe it was the act of a Communist. The Nazis certainly took advantage of this act of arson to tighten their grip on Germany but it is speculative to treat his position as fact. This and other instances in the book that I know were incorrect makes me doubt the correctness of many of the "conspiracies" of which I know little or nothing.
   
   I feel like a victim of a conspiracy. Jeffers, the editors, publishers, vendors, and whoever else was responsible for putting this book out conspired to make a quick buck.

No comments about EL SALVADOR'S DECADE OF TERROR Human Rights Since the Assassination of Archbishop Romero.

No comments about Last Man to Die.

No comments about Resistance and Revenge: The Armenian Assassination of Turkish Leaders Responsible for the 1915 Massacres and Deportations.

No comments about Twenty days;: A narrative in text and pictures of the assassination of Abraham Lincon and the twenty days and nights that followed--the Nation in mourning, the long trip home to Springfield,.

No comments about A Case Study in the Insanity Defense- The Trial of John W. Hinckley, Jr. (Academic Text/Reader).